first attempt at growing hibiscus from seed

Mike... awesome box!!!!!!!!!! I rather have 1,000 of them than one of those camper things. A tent and a blow up matress if much more fun and a real camp fire. : ) I built me out of scap wood and plastic and somebody's throw away wire a poly house of sorts, but with this heat it just too big to put anythign in to start. Having some small boxes will be great for doing those few of this and few of that things, I always wanted to try , but didn't really have anythign proper to start them in, in.

Somebody had given me their left ove r pices of weed mat. That thin stuf f that come s in the rolls that ya find at lowe's. It real thin. I mean real thin. think my tee-shirt is thicker than it. If I souble a pice of that up do ya think that would work for puttign on the ground for drainage and to keep critters from crawling all in the box?

Kim.... You sent me plenty of seeds. Mor e than enough. Lots and lot s of eyes in them. Don't worry about tryign to send any more. If these come up ther e will be a slew of them. You did good : ) Don't worry yourself, please. We thankful that ya share d some. : )

Ella, thet weed mat will do fine, but be sure that the box is making good contack with the ground, so water won't wash it out, if heavy rain.(you know, like we got when we were kids).Last year I had a large box on the ground, and it was under the eaves of the house, and the gutter stopped up, and washed all the plants out, and some had a nice root start, it sure made me sick to see that waste.
What do you think of the idea I have on bottom heat from composting?I am going to try another box, about the same size, and use a large truck intertube filled with water, and a po mans home made solar water heater under it.I want to see whitch one works best.Mike

Mike.... Thanks for that bit of info. Be just my luck I would come out and see my box and.or plants going down the road to the neighbor s house. LOL... If anything strange weird, unusual or crazy can happen , it wil to me. : )

The idea sounds good to me. Especially in the winter, the sun warming and aborbing heat would surley keep the root s from being damaged and thats the most important thing. Only thing I can think of that I would worry about is that the temp doesn't get too high, but doesn't stay too low. Temps between about 150F to 160F are good for killing any bad weed seed s or organisims and wil produce beneficial ones to keep composting. I would make sure my compost going in the boxes had at least reache d those temps, to make sure the bad guys are killed.

You would have to either I think maybe stir the mulch onc e in awhile or figur eout how to ad d some nitrogen to keep good microbes from dying and the mulch smelling and rotting. When the mulch sittign out in the open it can dry , but if it in the sealed box then the moistur elevel gonna rise and it just possible it might become a breeding groudn for fungi and bacteria if proper air flow and temps aren't maintained.

At night it would be a fantastic idea for heat, but durign the day, you'll wanna watch to make sure if temps get up to about 80F and no more than 86F that the box gets vented. Above those temps the plants will start stressing and can die.

I was raised on a corn farm when I was little up North and I remember when we moved into the city my dad stil used to make cold frames for his veggies. he'd dig a hole about a foot to two feet deep. lien the sides with wood and find somebody who was throwing a window pane out and use it for the top.

I've never built a heat from from compost before. Usually come winter I gather all the plants in pots together in a section I know gonna get the most sun durign winter and then mulch the whole thing over with the Oak and Hickory leaves that fall off the tree. I just use the fresh of f the tree leave s and so far I have never had a problem. Maybe I ought ot whisper that, don't nee d no bad luck.

Way back in the begining of January , on the tre e and shrub forum or maybe it was the fruit and nut forum, ( I forget) we were discussing somethign and cuttings. Gloria125 had used Christmas rope lights for a hot bed. I don't know to do a search here on Dave's to se e if that specific thread woudl come up. You might try and dmail her and ask her about her hot beds with the rope lights. Come to think of it , I need to too, cuz I got the rope light s ot giv eit a try, but been so long now, I forget what she said to do.

Might try both ways and se e which and what propagates the best.

Now the intertube idea is pure genius. : ) It will giv e ya lot s of heat and with it being black will hold the heat longer. I didn't know trucks had removable inner tubes. That shoudl work alot better than the water towers and plain ole buckets of water. You could put plants in the center and all around and get better coverage of lots of plants instead of just a few.

Have you seen this one using straw bales? Only thign is worry whethe r mice and rodents and snakes might try nestign in it too. The mice don't worry me as much as the snakes. ( shiver.. shiver.. shiver)

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_seasonal_fall/article/0,1785,HGTV_3625_1372188,00.html

on this site from Virginia at figure 4 is a detaile d pic for putting a manure hotbed together as far as the way to set up the compost and sand layers.

http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-381/426-381.html

here another good article for a manure bed.

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06965.htm

I don't know how cold your winter gets and how much bad frost and light snow days you get, but think maybe the rope light s and your inner tubes would do the most good and hold the heat the longest. Are you gonna fill the inner tube up full or just part way?

One of thos e article s I sent a link to says that manure bed only good for sprign and fall as it doesn't hold the heat that well durign the winter.

I do know that it is going to be interstign to se e what works good and the best of the different things your trying. I love always trying new things especially when ya can make it out of used materials and scraps and others junk. : )

Checke d on the Pink Hibscus pods and they coming along fine. Hopefully maybe if thes e temps keep up they should be ready to harvest and share in a week. I move d them under some Hickory trees during this heat wave so it takign them a bit longe r to ripen.

If ya all want mor e of the Luna White seeds, let me know. Be glad to sen dya some more and then I gonna off er the rest to folks on the seed forum. I got Luna White seeds comign out my ears. LOL

This is the inside of the poly house I and my friends Jo and Jerald helpe d me build. Everything but light bulb fixture all came from throw away stuf f in people's and busines s trash . Did a bunch of hauling and pulling of nails, but only thing had to buy was nails to staple the plastic and one roll of plastic so I could have double thickness. The door was built from a piece of solid wood fencing that was boke somebody threw out and I just covere d it with plastic and put on a coupel of hinges.

Not fit for anything to be in it during summer. It hotter than an oven and not hot enough durign winter for propagation just for keepign plants from roots freezing. I'd liek to figure out how to heatit cheap, but so far haven;'t come up with anything.

Ella, can you staple shade clowth over the whole structure?If so, I'll bet you can root most anytyhing.It looks like it gets too much sun.Mike

Oh, I have the front of my boxes face south, and the back is protected from the back.Mike Oh, and thanks for the idea of using chicken wire to hold up the plastic.Mike again
Another thing,why do you elevate the plants on pallets, instead of putting them on the ground, or maybe a mulch?Is this your GH, and do you do cuttings in there?I do like the set up.Mike

This message was edited Aug 7, 2007 10:24 AM

Mike.... When we put the plastic on we went around the frame with pieces of an old blue tarp that we cut in strips about " wide, folded in half and then nailed every couple inches over the top of the plastic to keep it in place and to keep the plastic from tearing from staples.

I had thought about trying to figure out how to get some shade cloth over it. To buy a single pice big enough would cost an arm and a leg and maybe a neck too. The one place I know that sells by the piece charges think it $1.30 or $1.60 a sguare foot and it only 6 feet wide. I'd have to try and figure out how to hook it together somehow so that when the wind blew it wouldn't rip loose and also rip the plastic loose.

When we built it I picke d the spot cuz I thought this way in the winter the plants would get full sun and in the spring that that might help with some winter warmth. It right sorta built inbetween and behind two big Hickory trees. They provide a little bit of shade to the front of the house durign the day, but the rest is in full sun.

When we put the chicken wire on it was not fun. The wire was I think 3 or feet wide. We cut it into lenths to go acros s the roof, and had to bend and tuck each cut to keep it from ripping the plastic. then we started at the roof and with since I was tallest, I would pull and hold , while Jerald, ( the muscles) went along on the beams and stapled and nailed the wire down.

The next one built will have smaller holed chicken wire. Think it wil make it even stiffer. Had a few spots that I didn't get pulle d tight enough and rain would gather and I would have to go out and push up on the inside to get the water off. But hey that wire was fre e and it worked. Somebody had thowed it out and I had a heck of a time tryign to roll and drag it about a mile and half home. Was afraid if I went to get my car that it woudl be gone by the time I got back.

Over the winter I had the pallets on the ground and the plants all set on them to keep from freezing. Had alot of spider plants and pothos and things like that. The black mat on the floor is pieces of a tarp like material that came from hardware store that they throw out. It thick and has no holes in it. The ground has a slight slope on it, so almost all the water runs out between the overlapped pieces.

Unfortunantely there are places that are not flat and water doe s gather. When I went to do spring cleanign after movign all the plants out to get rain and sunshine, I picke d up pallets and the bottom of some of them had like starte d rotting and molding. I threw thos e out and put all fresh pallets in and put them up on free cartons I been able to gather so far and when I run out of them will put on free cinder blocks I gathered.

This time round I putting some lava rocks around the edge too to help keep slugs and snails from tryign to find a nice warm spot to crawl into over the winter. This house here wil hold perenniakls and bulbs that I wil over winter in pots to keep them from freezing. With puttign them up this high, I can keep pests out and can easily check the pots and wate r without having to bend over and crawl around on my knees.

Ya it my Gh of sorts and I have another one just like it and we been gathering more wood and pulling nails from it and are in the proces s of starting a third one and if time and supplies permits a fourth for just starting veggies.

I hoping to get a bunch of buste d bags and reduced bags of some medium size rock or may have to get a load and find a place to buy some regular heavy duty landscape ground cloth to put under it and then I can put in some propagation beds without havign to worry about havign pests eat the roots. The moisture and humidity leves get somewhat high in there as the heat builds and think with regular rmulch I would have lots of mold and bacteria build up on it.

I haven't figured out how to cool and heat them though were I would be able to have a constant temperature though. For the lights, they were made from wire somebody threw out and have them where they hook into one line and that one line attache d to a plug and then have hanging off a pice of rope off a tre e in front of the house the two plug boix to plug the lights into and then ran the wire straigh to my big electrical box outside. Only thign is if there a hint of rain can't us e the lights. I afraid too even though the thing supposed to have somesort of protection thing. My hair has enough wild days on it's own, I don't need to add to the frizz from electrical shock. LOL

The houses work good for winter storage and for getting plants and winter in house sown plants a head start, til I can figur e out how to get the othe r problems dealt with . In January using these plant stands we built, I winter sowed trays of annuals and then moved them out into the GH to grow up til they could got out into the elements.

I been thinking about getting a coupel of kerosene heaters to heat them for this winter, but never having used one before am a little bit afraid of tryign to figure out how to light one.

I'm open to ideas and suggestions if ya have some. : )

Kim, I think I have a sprout comming up in the formosan lillies, I'll know better in a couple of days.Just love to see life emerge.
Ella, think I do have an idea to hold heat in your GH. Fill intertubes with water, and line them up on the sunny side.The sun comming through the plastic, will heat the tube, and water displaces heat much slower, and it should hold through the night.The bigger the tube the better.Mike

Ella, don't buy any tubes, you can find throwaways.

This message was edited Aug 7, 2007 8:26 PM

Mike! Way to go with the Lily! Have you transplanted any of your CV yet? How big are they now?

Hi Kim, as a matter of fact, I have been thinking of potting the CV, and putting in the shade house, but this temp!!Wheeu!I am afraid they might die from the shock, and I have too big a plane for them.
The formosan lilly does have a blade comming, and that is exciting.Mike

Mike, you and Ella are awesome with seeds, many others here as well. How excited I'm for you.
Kim

Mike.... Finally was able to talk to Jo and Jerald and tell them about your inner tube idea. We all wondering how would you go about fillign them though? How do we get the water inside? And would we want to lay them flat or lean against the side of the gh? If so, I wondering if I would need to make more braces? My frame is not cemented in. We just dug and burrie d and packe d the dirt back in.

Also, what kind of place s do we go to search for inner tubes?

Congrats on your new baldes of grass. At leat thes e one s ya don't need to mow. LOL : )

I just love it, the blade of grass that doesn't need mowing. It's exciting news since I am still timid about sowing seeds. I planted a few canna's seeds, it has been weeks now, still there is no sign of germination. Other time I tried, very low germinating success rate. Whether it's annual, perrenials or tree's seeds. :(
Kim

Good to hear from you Ella, to fill an inter tube with water, lay it on the side, remove the valve stem, and place a water hose up tight over the stem and put as much as you want.I would fill it till it was at least 1/2 full, then I'd put the stem back in and pump it up.I would stand them up, like they were on a car, and place a stake next to them to hold them up.As the sun shines through during the day it will heat the water in the tube, and since water cools at a slower rate, they will keep the temp a constant.I hope I saw the GH as you have it, and that you have a sunny side, or where the sun shines most.You should be able th get used intertubes from most tire changing places, and they should not charge much, even if the tube will hold air, whitch is a good thing.Mike

Kim.... I have had Canna seed that have taken as long as two months to germinate. Did you score them first. If you didn't you'll be waitign til next year for them to try and germinate.

Soem folks use a piece of sandpaper, finger nail files, nail clippers on them. I got tire dof sanding my nails and finger tips and found that using a pair of dog toe nail clippers works great. You can hold the seed over one of the blades, run it back and forth until you can see a little bit of white, then I soak them for at least hours in hot water, then plant. They need heat, alot of it to germinate. Put them in the pot, put baggy over them and put someplace where they gonna get nice and toasty. If yoru using soil to start them in and not a seed germinating mix, make sure you barely wet the soil or your seeds wil mold before they have a chance to come up. Canna take patienc e to come up, but onc e up they grow liek crazy. Oh and make sure they are barely covered and don't let them dry out. They have to have high humidity with the heat.

Don't giv e up on seed starting. it take s time and sometime s a bit of different ways for things to start. Tre e seeds take forever and usually most of them ya put in a pot in the fall, cover so critters don't get them and forget until next year when the temps get warm enough for them to start.

I been waiting three weeks already on some Delphinium seeds to sprout. Everyday I check to se e if them guys are doign anything, but they being slow, stubborn or both. LOL

Shoot, There been time s when I have had the trials seeds from the big companies and left in the baggies and under the light s for as little as six hour s to long and had them strech and have to start over. It all a case of trying and trying and keep on trying. With every batch of seeds ya fail, ya learn somethign new and what not to do and ya try somethign else , until ya find a trick that works for them.

Everybody has the ways they like. I try my way and when it doesn't work I try somebody elses, and somebody elses til the day I can say BINGO! It's a sprout! LOL

Mike.... Same here! They finally got my car going and then it broke just a bit ago. I have never had a car with airconditing in it before , never really neede d it, but today, even I couldn't take the heat and had a friend put that coolent and such in to charge the air conditioner . Was nic e and cool on the way home and went to go to corner store and now it won't start and all on that side is oil. Some days I can't win for losing. LOL

For the GH, Yes I do have a couple of sides where the sun really comes in the most. All across the back and about halfway on both sides. Jo and Jerald are coming over after church to se e about the car and wil let Jerald read what ya said about how we should do the tires. Jo and Jerald are our age and retired and they tryign to grow plants and want to garden and they don't have room at their place and I do so we help each other.

I am hoping to try and get an early jump on tomatoe plants this year. I'm not sure how warm it has to stay in the Gh for the seedlings. I'll start them in the hous e unde r my light stand and then mov e them out. Hopefully your tire ide a will keep them nice and cosy enough.

That the best little investment I ever made. Built the stand from scap pvc and just had to buy some connectors and the lights. Hopefully your tire idea wil keep them nice and cosy enough.

Tommorrow the first two pink hibiscus pods shoudl be ready to pick and wil send you all soem of them. I know the Luna taking two to thre e weeks to come and are comign up sparatically . I just pick the one s out of seed tray when they get big enough.

I also gonna start sending you out some boxes this week Mike. Gonna start with the bulbs and smaller stuf f first. I gotta get a couple of boxes long enough for your Confederate Rose and such. I got lawn mower box but while it long enough it way to wide. Gonan try the florist shop and se e if they got a box that wil work.

Oh for I forget, do ya check inner tubes for leaks the same way ya check regula r tires with soap and water. Or do they already come blown up? Can ya tell I not mechanically inclined. LOL I one of them folsk that can take somethign apart, but when it come s to puttign it back together, is th e one who always have a dozen screws or parts left over and ha s no idea why. : )

Kim.. Pic is my seed starting rack. I start alot on my kitchen table unde r kitchen light in baggy and then once i see the first sprout they get move d out of baggy on to seed rack and unde r lights. Not enough light on kitchen table and they strech otherwise.

Hi Ella;
By jorge! You're mighty handy with those pvc pipes cuttings and rigging up to something useful. Go girl! I see now, I'm doing it all wrong. My kitchen's propagation light is too far from the seeds flat, thus didn't get the same effects. Duh.
On the Canna seeds, I should have known with the hard seedcoats and all. But no, I didn't scarify them. Since it has been in a pot for several weeks now. Should I try to fish them out and start all over from scratch? lol,lol. I may just try another batch and see how they turn out. Thank you for your advice.
Good lucks with your transportation.

Kim... Go back and dig your other Canna seed. and score them. Won't hurt them a bit. I have doen that before manya time when I wondered if maybe I didn't get a few of them scored deep enough.

The plant stand is not my idea. Carolyn had sent me a link to the plans one year. One she used. ( Hope they get her puter fixed soon.)

The design came from here from T's Flowers and things. Just click on the link that says plant stand. It about 7 or 8 pages to print out, but it fantastic and give s ya what parts ya need plus detailed instructions. I used 3/4" pvc pipe cuz that all what I had on hand. I have five stands built. Only one has lights, but I use the others outside to hold plant flats on

http://www.tsflowers.com/

Only thing I did find out is that you really need to glue the parts together good and to take a marker and label each part, red, gren bue, ect. and when you are puttign the pice s together, use one of them rubber mallets to tap the piece s into togther tight. First one I put together kind cam apart where I didn't have the parts all the way in far enough.

If The computer doesn't act up. I'll show you how I start my seed in a series of pics. Mayeb this way will work for you and maybe not. This is not for tree seed or for perennials that need a cold chill first.

First pic. I got a couple of them 288 seed trays from a green house and cut them up into 9 by 8 square pices. Fill with sterile seed starting mix. Farfard seed starting mix if you cna get it. It very fine. or if you have a screem you can take peat, perlite, and vermicultie and keep rubbing it over tiny holed screen to make it a really fine mix. I take a little like wash bucket, put some soil in it and just enought water to keep the dust down, ya cna hardly tell any water on it. Fill the tray. spritz with water once. add seed. Then I cut up old blinds and us e them for markers. I cut four pieces about 2" long and stuf f one down in the edge of a hole on each side. That wil keep the baggy off the soil and make an air pocket. Then I had a very very fine layer of dry FINE vermicultite ove r the whole tray .

Then carfully slid e into a one gallon zip lock baggy and put on kitchen table . My kitchen light runs 24/7 which helps in the germination of seed . There are a few seed s that need darknes to germinate but not to many. My Kitchen light about 32" of f the table. If I lower it any more I bang my hea d on it constantly. I watch the seed trays after about three days on. Alot of flower seed especially annuals wil start sprouting then. Then I take out baggy and put under plant stand lights. Plant stand lights are only about 1/2" above the flat tray.

They stay under there until the get first set of true leaves , usually a wek or two and ya have to mist them a coupel time s a day. You can't let them dry out. I usually stick my finger in the place wher e I put the tags to feel how dry or wet the soil is. Too wet and you'll rot your roots and also promote growth of white fly nats. When I put them unde r lights. One seed flat wil hold two seed trays. My seed flats have hole s in them so I just line with a cut up piece of trash bag.

Soon as they have first set of real leave s out they go into six inch pot s or one gallons outside. That the only way I can start seed and keep thinsg going without having critters and rains wash everythign away.

Here is seedtrays in baggy.

One of the things we did at the university to help keep seedling trays keep from drying out was cut up black plastic bags and lay on top of a wire bench, then we went to walmart and bought from the scap section some pices of materials that like cotton I gues s ya call it. the kind a of material pj's mad e out of, wher e it a little thicke r or fuzzy feeling.

Place plastic down first and water it. Look where the wate r gathers and in those spots poke some tiny hole s to drain the water, then lay material over plastic and that way when ya wate r your seedlings the material will stay damp longer and keep the seedlings from dryign out and burnign up so fast in the high temps.

The material also helps keep roots from coming out the bttom of the seed trays from dryign up.

Hello folks, we sure have been having our share of 100 degree weather, and I'm afraid we will tell it later.No one cam water all their plants, and not use water.I have been saving all the house water that would go down the drain, just for the plants.I am so glad that Carolyn told me about the water container, and it has really helped with the warering situation.
Ella, I too have been putting the light too high, and now I can add another shelf. I am so happy for the things I have learned on DG, from friends like you.All folks need to do is get their heads together, and discuss ideas, and out it pops.Mike

It's also a previledge for me to have been included and having the joy of sharing with everyone here at DG.
Good morning everyone, it sure has been a tough season on our garden. Hanging in there, this one too shall pass.
Ella, how are things going for you? Mike I know you're taking good care of Paxil, is she whinning about the heat wave? My pets even refused to go gardening with me anymore because of the extreme weather. Ya'll take care, and stay cool.
Kim

Just a note to say hi to everyone, how are things going in your corner of the gardens? Ella, you've got d-mail. Hello Mike, may I please see your Lilies' progress? Pics. please.
Kim

Lily_love, now that is a great pix! Did you have to pay those little guys to get in the middle of that leaf or are they just naturally talented that way?
Have a great day!
:~)

Smockett, they're just naturally photogenic. A unified bunch if nothing else. They're so clever, let me tell you. They hid from view I didn't find them again until they became adults. Then they're out ravaging my seedpods, the milkweeds flowers/seedpods that I've reserved for my butterflies, my adenium seedpods too, I've noticed they enjoyed those as well. Even my natal plum isn't spared by these little guys. Their appetite is ferocious!!!

They're the milkweeds' nymphs, then voilas! to adult milkweeds bugs!

Kim, wish I could show you a pic of the formosan lilies, but the one that sprouted was not a lily, and now I'm in a new batch, with a little different approach.I have tried, unsucessfully to locate a thread on how to grow the formosan lily, but to no avale.This time I double checked for mature ovaries, and pre soaked the seeds.Never quite, there is always a way, you might find 115 ways it won't work, but then you master the sucker, and you become a veteran.I think it took me more times than that to master the gerbera daisy, but I got it.Mike

I'm sorry to hear that about the formosian lilies. I'll experiment with some of them, and we can compare notes. You'll beat me hand down on this race. But I'm willing to give it a try. Ready? Go.
(Will get back on that later).
Kim
p.s.
Have you heard from Ella? Is she doing ok? I haven't heard from her a while. Just hoping she's doing all right, car broke, PC broke? I'm thinking about her.

Me too Kim, do hope she is doing fine, and I believe she is very busy, and has not had time for the PC, after all it is getting time for the fall rush.Kim, I'm going to figure out the secrete to the formosan lilies, and will enjoy growing them, they are so beautiful, and if they have sent then thats a plus.I know how to grow the easter lily, and they are in the same family, so I'm close.I think the secrete lies in the seed, and what is maturity, and probably polination.You know the honey bees are scarse around here, and probably there too.I use to try to do away with the carpenter bees, but lately I just let them eat up the wood, because they are polinators too.See ya, Mike

Mike, I'm happy we made the connection, it's wonderful how much I learned from everyone here on DG, many gardening tips I learn right here from your post. Ella has been a great contributor! I learned more about the bugs and bee. From DG I've recently learned how to recognize lady's larvaes, last time I was out with a water hose to hose down aphids. I spotted a ladybug and her nymphs. I left that particular branch of aphids infested alone for the bugs. Soon later, there were no aphid when the larvae finally became adults! I was very pleased to have spared the ladybugs as you've your capenter bees. Love those Easter Lilies.
Happy gardening.
Kim

Hi ya all!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just finally gettign a fe w minute s ot myself to sit and chat. The use d car I bought broke thre e days I got it. I was on my way to po to mail people the extra Hibiscus seeds, but eveidently that wasn't Gods plans cuz I broke down have way to town and got a car stopping by to call me a tow truck. If I woudl have left it sit ther e it would have sprouted wings and disappeared. So I was back to no wheels. Then got a dos e of heat stroke from the long walk home. Took me hour s in 113F heat to get back home and only had one tiny half bottle of wate r with me. Wa s not a good day. : (

Then last week the maillady, Bles s her heart hate d seeign me withotu wheels so long especially as I am an asthmatic and they sold me a used old pick up truck they had. They bought it and the guy neve r got the title d change d so they didn't know how to get a title. I said I wil get a title, pleas e let me buy the car, so now I driving a little '86 ( must be somethign abotu that year cuz I sure get too many vechile s from it) isuzu pickup truck. It beat up and bange d up and I feel right at home in it. : ) It not pretty , leaks oil like crazy, but Thank you Jesus at least it runnign for now. My other car stil sittign at the shop broke and they haven't even starte d on it. grrrrr

Then my son who serving overseas got injured, not bad , but had that worry on my mind and didn't hear from him for almost two weeks . That had me worried and when I that worrie d I don't function to well on other tasks. My son my world . If ya been a parent ya know wher e I comign from.

Now my boidy and my brain are just to old to do all the memorization and essay writign to take the tests to go on to graduate school so I signe d up to take some other classes two days a week for what I wante d still to learn. Then I find out one of my classe s is cancelle d and had to scrambelto find another one and had to drop one cu I wasnt gettign hoem til 10 pm withthe late class and time change s so had to find another one and got oen but I so lostttttt in it. Oh well, maybe I wil instantly get a case of the smarts come exam time, but doubt it. Been havign to sit with a dictionary every night for hour s to try and fidn the word s he talkign and using and what they mean.

Then yep, been busy tryign to get stuf f transplante d and starte d and settle d for the fall. I know I sur e don't want to se e another columbien for a coupel of weeks anyways. LOL

Mike... I stil haven't gotten your box out as you can tell. Being back to no wheels and then the heat was stil stressign them bad here and now that we got soem cooler temps in the 90's at l;east we have had rain everyday and the bulbs are soaked. I hope that wednesday I try and get them out to ya, especially want to get the Hawiian Rose lei to ya before it blooms. Your gonna have a ton of fun with that one. Oodle s of babie s attache d to it.

For the formosian lily this is how I starte d mine. Forget who told me how they did there's but it worked.

Get a small clear container liek about show box size from walmart withthe lid or from dollar store. Fill the container with potting soil. Make sur e it pottign soil and not garden soil. If it feels on the heavy side ad d a bit of peat mos s to it to kind a fluf f itup. Have it just so it barely damp, more to the dry side.

Take and scatter t he seed s on the top of the soil. don't cove r the seeds. Plac e lid on seeds or us e piece of plastic and put in plac e wher e the temp wil be about 78F to 80F constantly. The only plac e I had that had that kind of heat all the time was the back of my computer monitor so I put the container there. The computer always on so it always generating heat and I don't have to worry about a plug or heatign mat gettign to hot and burnign things down when I busy or not around.

Don't block the air ducks on your computer though. I put two little bricks to ris e my container up about a 1/2" of f the monitor. In about a week to two weeks they starte d germinating. Looke d like grass. Soon as I seen them starting up enough I took plastic lid of f and put a piece of saran wrap with a few hole s in it soat moisture woudl stil stay in to germinate the rest of the seds but allow the one s sproute d to breath. Soon as most of them up a coupel of inches, then it transplant time, beign careful not to break the tips.

I used a kitchen spoon to scoop them out in small groups and laid on apiec e ofpaper and gently seperate d them that way from the root s so as not to break tips and put into individual 2" pots.

Kim.... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Bugs!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL... Looks like ya nee d to bring out the dish soap. LOL Sufficate, clean and wash them nasty critters away.

Ya knwo it kind a liek a catch 22 with bugs and beneficials. If ya keep beneficials alive and want to expand their population you need to have some of the ba d bugs for them to eat or they not gonna stay in your yard. My big problem is grasshopper s and yesterday I sa w this at first what I thought wa s a dragon fly , but have no ide a what it was, looke d like a giant fly head with just a long body ha d a grasshoppe r in his jaws. When i came by with waterhos e he fly a bit with that hopper. I need to have afe w mor e of him aroudn whateve r it is and maybe the hoppers will quit eating my flowers.

I don't have the carpenter bees, but have thre e different kind s right now and lettign them all stay even the groudn one s that been vicious as all get out her e witht he drought, poor humemr s have had to fight bees at the feeder. We need every bee we can right now liek Mike said for pollination.

Well, think I got pretty much caught up here. Hoepfulyl thinsg will settle down a bit and I can chat and relax again. Miss ya all! : )

It's spring time! More time for our reunion? Let's do. I've missed chatting with everyone here.
Kim

This was some kind of thread, and darned if I didn't learn a lot.I planted my white, and red hibiscus that I started from seed, and look foward to see them grow.BTW, whats with tulips? I planted some three years ago, and NOTHING, now many are comming up.Some of the bulbs I had planted, I ploughed up to plant something else, and I have tulips everywhere.I had sworn off tulips, but now I don't know.Mike

Funny, this came up cuz I was just thinking about ya all too. I had cut back the old stem growth on all my Luna and other hibiscus about a week ago and noticed the other day the new tiny shoots are starting to emerge from around the base of the stem of th eplant again.

Got all the Texas Stars trimmed back and waiting for them to do there thing. Oh Mike, the peony is loaded with buds and it is up about 5". I am so excited. Had to put it and the rest of my tenders back in the gh and they will be in there for the next couple of days cuz I am all frosted cold mornings again. I am so sick of this yo-yo weather.

How is a person supposed to get anythign done when ya spend half the day hauling stuf f in and out and throwing covers on and off. The past week the yard has been covered in newly emerging green and had taken all the old oak leaves off of plants to let them start soaking up the sun, now I grabbing every thing I can and my yard looks like it gone gothic with black plastic coveing tossed evrywhere you look.

No tulips here. Not enough of a cold chill to keep them alive. I planted hundreds of them one year and most of them melted and rotted even before they had a chance to bloom. I had that with glads the one year like your tulips Mike. Nothign for years then one year. poof, there they was. Guess the bulbs just needed to get good enough roots established and the bulbs big enough to store enough energy to get them to pop for ya.

I have lots toplant yet, but am runnign so behind, am so afraid with this long cold weird weather we have been having and just don't have the heart to see if we get hit late with another hail storm like last year that destroyed everything.

Kim... Are ya going to the Ga RU in a few weeks. I was gonan go , but can't find me a radiator, but am gonan take it , if I cna get the hoses lose to tak eit in and see if maybe somebody can weld it for me like Mike suggested.

That an awesome looking tulip ya got there. A real beauty for sure. beautiful color combo. : )

Hostas are up, got one ginger so far decided to strut its stuff before the rest and canna and amaryliss are all breakign ground. My black and blue salvia I cut back last week too and now they sending up new shoots. Hoping the Confederate roses start soon sending new stems. I can see where the new buds tryign to form.

So far I got two lonely Iris that are blooming and only had one lonely daffodil bloom so far.

Was looking at some pots yesterday and wondering what in the world was in them, LOL Here it formsian lilies trying to start sprouting. : )

Hollyhocks was coming all bakc up for the third time. They sure took a beatign with all the ups and downs temps. Had a bunch of them that heavies and had to recover them back up with some more dirt yesterday. Planted about 35 delphinums and so far only half are showing. But I had put them in bigger pots which is probably why they going slower. Tipped a pot and they been busy makign roots.

What you guys all got up and going on?

In aout another hour wil go out and hopefulyl by them the frost will be gone adn I can start the uncovering of everything . Oh my aching back. LOL

Good morning, Ella and Mike, I can easily echo Ella's sentiment about the up & down our temp. around this time does to us poor gardeners. lol. Ella last evening, I too was busy as a bee trying to haul tender plants back indoor to protect them from surprise/potential frost. But, that's the small price we pay for an early start in spring. I guess, that's just a way mother nature tests our patience and devotion to the love of gardening?

Mike, Tulips are a much loved spring blooms in my garden. But after so many trials and errors. I've come to term with them: Treat them as annuals. Our hot weather isn't ideal for us to nuture them .... just like Ella has mentioned.

Ella spring time is right upon us, or more than half way there. April will be a busy month for us, unless miracle happens, I don't know if I can break away for more RU...

Most perennuals has re-sprouted here too, though I don't see the hibiscus yet. I've a few Formosian Lily seedlings that I nursed in the makeshift-gh over the winter....will be ready to put them out soon and hope to see them flowering maybe next year?

Mike I planted some tiger lilies' bulblets last spring in a raised well drained bed. They appeared to have vanished in late autumn, but they're taking off and looking bigger this time of year. So I hope I see more of them. Other Asiatic Lilies I've transplanted last fall is also poking their noses through the ground. I'm looking forward to see more of them this growing season. I'm glad to "see" both of your posting.

Kim
p.s.
I've some Wisteria that's about to burst into full blooms. I hope late frost won't damage these lovely blossoms this year.

Girls you sound as busy as me, only my old dog still needs my attention, and I have to take her on the leash to see what I've been doing.I tried to stake her out in the middle of what I'm doing, but like DW she has little patience.About two minuets she is ready to go back in.I know it sounds like I'm complaning, but I love her too much not to care for her, she turned fourteen on the 21st of this mounth.
I have some formosan lilies that I grew from Kim's seeds, and they are about 3", and I don't know weather to pot and wait, or direct plant, I could use a sugestion.
Tiger liies are easy to grow, the problem is when you trans plant the bulbs get loose, and make a bunch of plant in limited space.I go ahead and break them apart, and some will bloom the first year, and some the year after.
I'm going to absolutely give up on hollyhocks, because something blights them to death.Maybe I tried too hard, but a gardener who can't grow hollyhocks must be no gardener, because I see people who have hollyhocks as weeds.
I have the weed problem with iris.They will grow in the washed out ditch, where I throw the unwanted, funny they lopok better comming up like that, and the ditch is no longer washing.
I can't imagine buying tulips as annuals, unless they go for bargan basement.
This year I am going to take a pic of my Texas star red, and white, that I grew from seed last year, no matter the size, or condition.Mike

Mike... If ya can hold on to them for a bit longer I would and put them out in the area of the yard you want them to grow and kinda mark the space adn then ignore it and let them do their thing. They don't like a whoel lot fo transplanting, so it would eb best since we this far into spring to wait til ya cna put them in the ground. In a week or two shoudl be good enough weather to plant them. Jst make sure ya dont plant them to deep. you cna always add more dirt or mulch later if needed but they don't liek being planted too deep for sure.

Awwwww don't give up Mike. We just got to figure out what goin on at your place that causing this. Soon as mine get a bit bigger, I'll sen dya some seedlings. After all the cold and heat and cold, mine or only up about an inch or so, they aren't gonan do anythign til the heat comes good.

Where you plant yours are they in full sun, sun/shade or shade? What type of plants are aroudn where you plant them?

I still got more seed if ya want soem more seed too. I know you have some good rich organic soil. I wonder if it too high for your hollyhocks. soem plants don't like real rich soil. wonder if ya throw a little clay and sand in the soil if it wouldn't help.

Hahahahah I got the same problem too. I got this one Iris that been growign in the middle of the walkpath for three years and it has acidently been stepped onand had hoses run over it, but it plopped itself there and since that where it wanted to grow I have left it. Just got to walk around it. Maybe oen of these days, I'll move it , but I wouldnt bet on it.